Daniel Krien’s understated novella explores a long marriage at a point of crisis over three summer weeks spent housesitting in the countryside. Rahel and Peter’s marriage has been under strain since a student put Peter at the centre of a social media fracas. When Ruth asks her to housesit while her husband is recuperating from a stroke, Rahel is reluctant but Ruth is her late mother’s best friend. She and Viktor were the only constants of Rahel and her sister’s rackety childhood. Over the next few weeks Rahel and Peter fall into a routine: Peter cares for Ruth and Viktor’s many animals, taking more pleasure in their company than he appears to in Rahel’s; Rahel gardens, reflecting on her marriage, the young people she sees in therapy and her daughter whose relationship is in trouble just as her own is. Nothing much happens in this beautifully crafted novella which lays bare our need to know who we are and our interconnectedness with those with whom we share our lives but by the end of the three weeks it spans much will have been resolved. All three of the novels I’ve read by Krien have been characterised by a quietly perceptive understanding of human nature and relationships, each of them expertly translated by Jamie Bulloch. So pleased that MacLehose Press has chosen the same cover designer for The Fire as they did for Love in Five Acts: both suit their respective novels perfectly.

4.5 A beautiful, simple, well told story. The cover attracted me to this book plus I'm a sucker for an author I've not read before and I love a translation. I've ceryainly not read many books by German authors. So the story is that Rahel and Peter are told that the holiday they had booked has to be cancelled due to a fire. However very shortly after they are contacted by a family friend asking if they will stay at her home as her husband is going into rehab after a debilitating stroke. The house is set in woods, by a lake and was the summer haunt of Rahel's family where they stayed with Ruth and her husband Victor. The story itself deals with all the issues facing those of us in middle age - feeling out of sync with both the young and elderly, not quite knowing if our career is what we wanted it to be, feeling out of step with our children and grandchildren plus all the joys of physical changes as our bodies age. Rahel is also dealing with the onset of menopause, which has made all her emotions just that bit more difficult to deal with. Add to that the fact that she and her husband seem to be travelling in two different emotional directions. This is a fascinating look at the changes we will all experience to some degree or other. The writing is beautiful. Its a well rounded tale that should appeal to almost anyone who enjoys the wide genre that is literary fiction. The only drawback of this novel is that, for me, I simply wanted more of it.

A novel that states a crushing truth. The line that keeps us intact as human beings can simply become a pyre of immense energy wielded to purge our sins. Of mortal, immoral and emotional value. The heroine is confronted with the act of spiritual resurrection like a phoenix at the moment of temporary demise. Faced with a multitude of personal issues that trail her from her childhood, she is compelled to answer some questions, develop some definitions and challenge her fears. In order to assess her identity as wife, mother, professional and most importantly, as a simple human. A woman in the midst of Time. The plot has a stable and solid structure, surfacing with paragraphs of subtle psychology, descriptions filled with vivid images and stirring sensations, fully relatable to any woman or man holding this book. The characters obtain a true sense of reality and depth, beyond the pages of the novel. But there are small alleys along the pathway of the narrative line that lead to no great discovery and to no essential revelation. It stumbles across its' path, submerging and emerging tired from the raw truth of her identity. A book that should raise some questions, but couldn't handle the weight of her immensity...